A love letter to romantic comedies, sweet sixteen blowouts, black joy and queer pride—this is a novel about finding yourself, falling in love, and celebrating what makes you you.

Sixteen-year-old Mahalia Harris never got to have a Sweet Sixteen like her best friend Naomi, because her single mother couldn’t afford to throw her one. But it’s okay, because Mahalia has an even better idea: she’ll have a lavish “Coming Out Party” where she announces her queerness to her friends and family.

Mahalia’s mom agrees to match whatever she can save from her afterschool job at the bougie organic grocery. And things start looking up when Mahalia meets a girl who gives her actual butterflies. That is… until she learns her crush, Siobhan, is already seeing one of the most obnoxious guys in school. And then Mahalia’s mother is laid off, forcing her to dip into her grocery store savings to keep their family afloat.

Things are looking bleak but Mahalia is no quitter; she’ll just have to get creative to pull off the party of her dreams, and (hopefully) get the girl along the way.

Ever since seventeen-year-old Josie Wright can remember, writing has been her identity, the thing that grounds her when everything else is a garbage fire. So when she wins a contest to write a celebrity profile for Deep Focus magazine, she’s equal parts excited and scared, but also ready. She’s got this.

Soon Josie is jetting off on a multi-city tour, rubbing elbows with sparkly celebrities, frenetic handlers, stone-faced producers, and eccentric stylists. She even finds herself catching feelings for the subject of her profile, dazzling young newcomer Marius Canet. Josie’s world is expanding so rapidly, she doesn’t know whether she’s flying or falling. But when a young actress lets her in on a terrible secret, the answer is clear: she’s in over her head.

One woman’s account leads to another and another. Josie wants to expose the man responsible, but she’s reluctant to speak up, unsure if this is her story to tell. What if she lets down the women who have entrusted her with their stories? What if this ends her writing career before it even begins? There are so many reasons not to go ahead, but if Josie doesn’t step up, who will?

Simone Garcia-Hampton is absolutely positive that having a crush is more dangerous than having HIV; after all, she’s got her viral load under control. Simone knows that her status isn’t a death sentence, as long as she remembers to take her medication and go to her doctor’s appointments, she can live a long, healthy life. There’s just one problem: she wants to have sex. Badly.

She knows abstinence is the safest policy, but Miles Austin has ruined that. He’s hot! He plays lacrosse! He asks Simone about her favorite plays because of how it lights her face up! What’s a horny (but responsible) teenage girl to do!?

Simone is already agonizing about how to tell Miles about her status, but she’s been burned before when she told people that she loved that she was positive—she even had to switch schools over it, leaving her boarding school when there was a huge public outcry from uneducated parents, not to mention a scarring shunning from the people she cared about most. She’s determined to keep her status a secret, but the cardinal rule of dating-while-positive is disclosure. Allowing herself to get close to Miles would be a gigantic risk.

Before she’s able to figure out what to do, Simone finds a threatening note left in her locker: I know you have HIV. You have until Thanksgiving to stop hanging out with Miles. Or everyone else will know, too.